Goodbye neighborhood polling places?

Mike Lee marks his ballot while voting in the California Primary, in Sacramento,Calif., Tuesday, June 3, 2014. With no divisive ballot initiatives or high-profile races a low voter turnout is expected.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The Associated Press

New CA voting model pitched by state officials

Driven by record low voter turnout, California election officials on Wednesday proposed a system that would deliver vote-by-mail ballots to all registered voters, eliminate many neighborhood polling places and replace them with larger voting centers that allow early voting.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the plan during a news conference in Sacramento.

“California ranked 43rd in voter turnout nationally for the 2014 General Election. This problem cannot be ignored,” said Padilla, a Democrat and former state senator from Los Angeles. He added that the new plan “would provide citizens more options for when, where and how they vote.”

The changes would allow voters to drop off or cast a ballot at any vote center in their county, rather than being tied to a single polling place.

While many neighborhood polling places would be eliminated, state officials say the smaller number of voting centers, established at schools or other community centers, would take their place and be open for 10 days before Election Day.

“I think we are all nostalgic for those polling place experiences,” Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, said at the news conference. “But the current model … is just not working. It’s not maximizing voter participation.”

Ron Nehring, vice chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County, called Padilla’s plan a partisan effort to get more Democrats to vote.

Nehring added that more competitive elections are the best way to expand voting in the state.

The changes are modeled after a reformed voting system in Colorado.

California Democrats said Wednesday the new voting model would save the state and counties money, but did not specify how much or say how much it would cost to mail all voters a ballot.

The new system is similar to a five-year pilot program that was signed into law last year for San Diego County. Spearheaded by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, that program requires elections officials to send all voters mail-in ballots for special elections to fill legislative vacancies.

“This is an opportunity to say: ‘We as a state value people voting,” Gonzalez, D-San Diego, said at the news conference. “What we need to do is break down all barriers.”

If legislation for the proposal is successful this year, officials said they hope to put it in place by 2018. Each county government would be able to opt-in to the new system.

Sen. Allen and Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, are coauthors of legislation for the plan. Their bill, SB 450, was originally crafted as a minor elections change and passed out of the Senate that way. The bill will be amended with the new proposal, which will have to be approved in both the Assembly and Senate before going to the governor.

Acknowledging that some voters who are used to neighborhood polling places may have trouble adjusting to new voting centers, Padilla said the plan would require the centers be established in easily accessible areas, including along public transit routes. He said the initiative would require strong public outreach, as well.

Backers added that additional steps, such as creating drive-through ballot drop boxes, would be considered as part of the plan.

“We’ve flipped this (voting system) on its head and focused on the voter, and made it convenient for them rather than convenient for people in government,” Hertzberg said.

“We need bold steps and innovation if we are going to start to change the low turnout situation in California — if we want to rescue our democracy,” Romero said.

She rejected the idea that the voting reforms would help only one party. She acknowledged Republican turnout rates are higher than those for Democrats but only by a few percentage points.

“Any reform in California would benefit both (parties),” she said.

She added that she’d like the voting changes to be mandatory, not optional for counties.

Backers of the change said they hope to see a cost savings and voter turnout increase similar to Colorado.

In that state, election costs dropped 30 percent after their new model was implemented in 2012, California officials said. Since then, voter turnout in Colorado has been an average of 20.7 percent higher than in California. Before, Colorado was an average of 7 percent higher.

Earlier this year, Padilla and Gonzalez authored legislation to boost California’s voter rolls — potentially by millions of people — by automatically registering eligible residents when they obtain or renew their driver’s license. That bill, titled the California New Motor Voter Act, was recently approved by the Assembly and will next be heard by the Senate.